Motorola today announced the Pro+, a new QWERTY Android smartphone. If we didn’t tell you the name of this device you would have sworn it was either the Droid Pro on Verizon or the XPRT on Sprint.

Nothing about the Pro+ is earth shattering. It ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread powered by a 1GHz processor. It includes a 3.1-inch 480 x 640 touch display with Gorilla Glass; 5-megapixel camera with flash and video capture; a GPS, Bluetooth Wi-Fi, and an FM radio. Perhaps, the best eye-catching specification about this phone is its several 3G variants, including a tri-band 850/1900/2100MHz HSDPA at 14.4Mbps that could be used on AT&T’s network, and a 850/1700/2100MHz HSDPA at 14.4Mbps that could be used on T-Mobile’s network.

Furthermore, it includes 4GB of on-board storage and accepts micro SD cards up to 32GB. While the Motorola Pro+ supports AT&T and T-Mobile’s 3G networks, the device will initially be sold in Asia and Europe, with no specific date when it’ll launch for AT&T and T-Mobile.

Truth be told, Motorola should come harder than this. If you’re going to copy the QWERTY keyboard idea that BlackBerry made famous, do it right. Don’t give potential buyers some hand me down reincarnation of the Droid Pro and XPRT. Hopefully, with Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility maybe it can push out better QWERTY handsets in the near future. That said, those of you on AT&T and T-Mobile who were craving the Droid Pro or XPRT will soon get your hands on this device.

2 Comments

Old dogs don't like new tricks. That's why so many execs still use Blackberries. I think Moto was smart to not break the mold that sold so well. Get them to jump to Android with a familiar form, then you can get fancy with design tweaks.

The specs on this are disappointing. I have a Droid Pro and love the form factor, but think Moto missed the boat (again). I appreciate the higher resolution display, but wish they would have bumped the screen to 4.0". Where's the front facing camera? 8 mp rear camera? dual core? How about an 1800 mAh battery?